Irv Abramson and his wife Doris have reason to believe in love at first sight, they say.
This month they celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary, and say they still enjoy each other’s company every day.
The nonagenarians and longtime Skokie residents say sometimes “you just know.”
Asked what about each other drew instant attraction, Irv joked, “our good looks.”
“The entertainment at that time (1940s) was getting together at somebody’s home, flinging vinyl records and dancing,” Irv said. “There was a birthday party and I was invited and I saw this fabulous woman across the room.”
Doris said she was no less smitten and agreed there was “a mutual attraction” immediately.
They started dating, became engaged nine months later and married Aug. 24, 1947.
Seventy years later, members of their family who are not already here were invited to come to town to celebrate the special occasion. The Abramsons’ family includes three children — Francine, 67, Janice, 66 and Lee, 62 — 10 grandchildren and one great grandchild with a second on the way.
“The key is trying to understand one another and enjoying the same things while letting each other do their own independent things,” Doris said.
When Irv met Doris, it was toward the end of a long recovery period from serious injury during World War II. After enlisting at age 17, he was almost killed by enemy gunfire in the Battle of the Bulge, he said.
Abramson had a punctured lung, a broken leg and other injuries, he said, and he lost blood and was unconscious for three days.
He was still a teenager — 19 — when he was discharged. And although he said war memories never leave him, no matter how many years pass by, Doris said it has never interfered with him being a nice person.
They spent years working together in an auto supply and wrecking yard business initially run by Doris’s father. She was a bookkeeper and a secretary with a degree in accounting, they said, and he was in sales.
“It was the best time of our lives,” Doris said. “We were doing something together.”
Decades after his military discharge, Abramson was among area World War II veterans who participated in Honor Flight Chicago where he was treated to a one-day trip to Washington D.C. to see the World War II Memorial and participate in other activities.
So taken with the trip was he that he volunteered for Honor Flight Chicago afterward, promoting the program through appearances at various venues, he said.
Irv is now 91, Doris 92, and they both continue to spend much of their time together. They love theater and music and still like to drive to various Chicago neighborhoods to see how much they have changed, the couple says.
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Irv said people are surprised by how much time they have spent together without it being a problem. Like any couple, Doris said, they have had issues but they never stayed mad at each other for long.
“A big factor is that we have always had something to talk about,” Irv said. “We were in conversation with one another and interested in one another. And there was always a lot of humor between us. We just enjoyed one another.”
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